Forbes recently did an article on the movie “Before the Flood”, where the UN “Messenger of Peace” – actor Leonardo DiCaprio – documents the realities of Climate Change, and provides insights into the solutions.

One of most fascinating quotes: To transition the world to 100% renewable energy will take 100 Gigafactories like the one that Tesla is building in Nevada.

While it’s no small feat to build a ~15 million square foot Gigafactory, and building 100 is beyond the reach of any one company – it is tremendously hopeful that there IS an achievable path to get humanity through the ever-deepening depths of climate disruption.

Across the country, solar customers & installers and battling with utilities over solar net metering – which “turns the meter backwards” at the same retail rate that customers pay their utility.

Solar advocates argue that net metering provides more benefits – to the grid and all customers – than the net metered retail price.

Utilities argue that solar net metering customers “zero out” their bill and don’t contribute to maintaining the aging grid, so the utilities lose money (or other customers have to pay more to make up the lost revenue).

Now, a number of New York State utilities have come together with several of the largest solar companies to reach a compromise.

The bottom line: we all depend on the grid. Those with solar need the grid at night, on cloudy days, or whenever their usage exceeds their solar generation. We need to keep the utilities healthy to maintain and evolve the interconnected grid that is the center of civilization. New York’s proposal provides an interesting path toward ending the war – providing a profit incentive so that utilities can make money on solar, while customers and the solar industry have a clear glide path forward. Read the Utility Dive article on the issue.

South Korean Grid Will Soon Have Biggest Energy Storage System! They have made use of two massive lithium nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) oxide energy storage systems (ESSs).

In the USA we are not even close to this kind of parity. We were recently at a conference on battery storage in New York State where New York City is even more limiting regarding battery usage then the rest of the country.

Business models have traditionally had the mind set of “the bigger – the better” and so it goes. Of course the utilities think that really giant renewable systems make sense. That way they maintain control of electricity & the profits. What our electric infrastructure will look like in 100 years no body knows. However what is clear is that we will need a variety of renewable systems for the foreseeable future. Let’s face it, in some highly congested urban areas microgrids, residential systems are not workable right now. But for the suburbs & rural areas small systems make the most sense. This article questions the value of utilities developing large scale renewable projects. I did not agree with it’s basic premise. But please read this yourself!